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French President Georges Pompidou yesterday (Thursday) opened the Paris Air Show. Gathered at Le Bourget?

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French President Georges Pompidou yesterday (Thursday) opened the Paris Air Show. Gathered at Le Bourget airport was a spectacular collection of 180 different types of aircraft, plus the latest developments in space travel. But the stare of this show were undoubtedly the two rival supersonic airliners -- the Soviet TU-144 and the Anglo-French Concorde.

M. Pompidou, who earlier this month flew in Concorde, yesterday went aboard the TU-144 to examined the Soviet contender for the supersonic market. He also watched a flypast by the latest French Mirage fighter in company with the famous designer Marcel Dassault.

SYNOPSIS: French President Georges Pompidou opened the Paris International Air Show on International Air Show on Thursday, and was soon attracted by the Soviet drop-nosed airliner, the TU-144, which rivals the Anglo-French Concorde for the world supersonic market. M. Pompidou, who earlier this month flew in Concorde, was shown over the Soviet jet by the man who masterminded its design, Mr. Alexei Tupolev. In an air show interview, Mr. Tupolev had suggest that the world market was big enough for both supersonic airliners.

This year's show brought together a spectacular collection of a hundred and eighty different types of aircraft. The United States and Soviet pavilions also featured latest space developments.

The U.S Apollo stand showed the space capsule of Apollo-14 and the moonrover vehicle that will serve Apollo-15.

The Soviet stand included a replica of the Lunarkhod vehicle which functioned for five months on the moons surfaces and the automatic Luna-16 station, which brought back moondust last autumn.

Britain's Rolls-Royce firm exhibited its latest engines. The company announced in Paris that, despite this year's financial crisis and state takeover, it was working at top speed to complete development of the RB2-11 engine for the American Tristar airliner.

Inside the exhibition hall, a model of the French Mercure short-haul airliner....
President Pompidou also sew French interests fully represented in the flypast. This is the Gazelle, a five-seater French helicopter.

Ace French designer Marcel Dassault joined the President to watch one of his firm's latest Mirage jets got through its places.

An undoubted star of the show is the Anglo-French Concorde airliner. This is the French prototype, 001, just back from its first long-distance proving flight to Africa.